Previews

Company of Heroes

Spiffy:

Visually, at least, it's a definitive step forward for RTS games.

Iffy:

Not much has been revealed about the gameplay modes.

At its recent pre-E3 press event, THQ gave us a glimpse of what the next generation of RTS games might look like. The game in question is Company of Heroes, and from the minute you lay eyes upon it, it's clear that there is some cutting-edge tech powering it. Granted, not a whole lot was revealed about its gameplay, apart from what we could infer from watching a lengthy demo, but it if nothing else, the game's visual presentation left a strong enough impression.

Company of Heroes is an RTS set in the backdrop of World War II. That's about all the background information we have, unfortunately. Due to the fact that the Relic rep conducting the demo was controlling a squad of Allied troops, we're assuming that the primary single-player scenario will focus on that side's exploits. It wasn't revealed whether or not there would be a concurrent Axis scenario, but the Relic rep suggested it likely that players would at least be able to take the role of the opposition in competitive multiplayer games.

Enough about what we don't know, though. At this point, the most noticeable thing about Company of Heroes is just how freaking good it looks. It's being powered by Relic's in-house Essence engine, which has incorporated into it some of Havok's latest physics technology. It certainly shows: during the course of the demo, all sorts of physics-inspired madness went down. Troops hit by bazooka shells flew suitably high into the air; M1 tanks plowed quite believably through masonry; and friendly units were able to hole-up in craters left by bombers. It's clear that physics will factor heavily into the gameplay -- everything in the game-world was destructible, to some degree -- and there will be units designed to take advantage. Case in point: army engineers' (commonly referred to as "sappers") primary ability will enable them to use their satchel charges to demolish buildings. For strategic purposes, of course.

Anyway, yeah, the graphics. The game looks amazing, and frankly, it was difficult to focus on anything else throughout the course of the demo. At the start, the camera captured a closer-up view of the platoon under the demoer's control. According to him, they were acting just like they would in the game -- that is to say, all the impressive behaviors and animations they were exhibiting weren't specifically programmed for that intro sequence. As they walked to their engagement, they chattered amongst themselves, fidgeted with their equipment, and reacted to the changes in their terrain. The level of detail in each individual model was evident, too; tiny touches, like rank insignias on their uniforms, were fully rendered, and their individual faces were mighty impressive, for a game in which dozens like them will be present onscreen at once. Once the intro was over, the camera pulled back into the standard bird's-eye RTS perspective, and the action began.

Suffice it to say that the action was intense. All manner of units battled it out, from rifle-equipped infantry, to bazooka-troopers, to M1 Sherman tanks and Panzers. They all looked marvelous, and frankly, we can't wait to take control of them ourselves.

We just wish we knew a bit more about the game itself. There's still no word on what modes will be present, not how multiplayer matches will work. We'll have more once more info is put out there, rest assured. Perhaps THQ will throw us a bone once E3 commences.